Marek Michalek's Blog

I had a marketing professor in University who said she
predicted in the 80s people would pay for bottled water. Seemed silly at the
time, now people are paying for what they get out of the tap for free. Her next
prediction is that people will make their own pop (soda if you’re American)
with those fancy CO2 machines. So my prediction: 80% of photographers will
become videographers. This means they will do corporate, wedding, and creative
videos as a large part of their services.

There a couple of reasons for my prediction.

1.
Most new DSLRs have a video function built. With
the high quality lenses a photographer already has they automatically are
stacked with incredible equipment to enter this field.

2.
They have the creative mind suited for
video/film production. A photographer has trained themselves to create a
compelling image in one frame. They can tell a story with just one shot. That skill
alone gives them a stepping stone to creating video.

3.
The financial reasons. Photography itself is
becoming a harder sell as a commodity or service. People are reluctant to pay
for the service because so many people can do it for so cheap. People are
tackling photography projects themselves because there are few barriers to
entry for a simple photo project. For video there is opportunity to create
quality productions for people at a reasonable cost, and for a reasonable
profit.

4.
Content is evolving. The growth of video online
has created an entire new market for artistic productions. Online streaming
sites such as YouTube and Vimeo have revolutionized film distribution. An individual
artist is able to compete on a large scale with minimal resources.

5.
A continuation of the last point, content demand
is shifting as well. There is an opportunity for artists to create content the
general population wants to see. If it is clever, artistic, well executed,
funny, it can be shared endlessly. People want short entertaining videos. They
are sacrificing production value for quality content. You could create a 5
minute film that has as large of an audience as Transformers 4.

6.
It’s a new challenge. Photographers always like
to push themselves with new techniques, new types of creations. Video
production is the natural evolution of that artistic journey. They don’t have
to switch gears entirely; however dabbling in video could satisfy a creative thirst.